Justin Thomas gave himself a genuine chance of securing a third major title with a stunning 65 on Sunday at the PGA Championship.
Thomas set the target early on in the final round. He probably assumed that his chances were officially over when he made a bogey on the third hole on Sunday to move to one over par for the tournament.
But the American fought back with six birdies, and a brilliant par on the 72nd hole to move himself onto the top page of the leaderboard. He looks set to have a nervy wait ahead of him.
What Justin Thomas did after his turbulent third round at the PGA Championship
Thomas put himself in the mix after two rounds of 69 over the first two days in Philadelphia. However, a 72 on Saturday seemed to put paid to his hopes of winning the PGA Championship for a third time.
He made five birdies and seven bogeys in the third round. Of course, Saturday saw a number of players post incredibly low scores to fly into contention.
So perhaps it is no surprise that Thomas was far from pleased with how his third round played out. Speaking to the media after taking the clubhouse lead, he explained how he decided to get some additional practice in.
“I was pretty sour yesterday. I was p—– off, I mean, to be perfectly honest. I fought really hard to shoot the score that I did, and I felt it was the best I could shoot, but I just was, I was upset and bummed I didn’t play better,” he said.
“I practiced a lot longer than I normally would have in a situation like that yesterday, but I just felt like I couldn’t leave the golf course in the frame of mind I was in. It was not a great chance, there wasn’t a good chance even, but I had a chance to win a major still. I needed to leave this place in a better frame of mind.
“I felt like it was more of a fire I was leaving with, and it was p—– off, but like a good p—– off, kind of one I wanted to bring with me today and kind of play with.”
Justin Thomas says whether he had a target score in mind at the PGA Championship
Thomas would have known that he faced a real uphill battle to stand any chance of contending on Sunday after going backwards the previous day.
Perhaps the early bogey freed him up; forcing him to take on shots that he would have potentially been a little more reluctant to take on had he been further up the leaderboard.
Thomas was asked whether he had a target score in mind heading into the day.
“Not really. I probably would have said six,” he said. “I think six is, I would say, probably looking pretty good for a playoff with the amount of people that are there. I felt like seven was probably a better chance of outright.
“But I didn’t look at the leaderboard at all today. I just said, look, I need to shoot as low as I possibly can, whether that’s two-over, three-under, nine-under, I don’t care. I need to shoot as low as I possibly can and see where that puts me.
“Yeah, I would really like it if the wind would start blowing a little bit more, that would be nice, but I did my part. So we’ll see.”
Thomas will certainly be going nowhere over the coming hours. The PGA Championship looks set to go down to the wire. And Thomas knows all about winning the Wanamaker Trophy in a playoff.
